Device for electric incinerator dry closets

ABSTRACT

Device for electric incinerator dry closets having a collecting vessel placed in a pan featuring a downward, essentially conical taper and, at its lower end, an operable trap door. Said door also serves as a lid above an electric incinerator chamber and is divided into heat insulating, semi-circular halves which simultaneously swing upwards and outwards away from each other. The door halves are suspended from supporting members which are rigidly attached to a casing or stand. When the trap door is closed, a full length projection on the straight side of one of the door halves engages a corresponding recess in the corresponding side of the other door half. The door is kept from opening accidentally by mechanical means which are actuated when a certain weight is on the dry closet seat. The incinerator chamber burns the waste material deposited in it when the collecting vessel falls via the opening cover into said chamber.

[ Mar. 27, 1973 DEVICE FOR ELECTRIC INCINERATOR DRY CLOSETS Sven Olof Edholm, Villavagen 27, Vadstena, Sweden [22] Filed: Feb. 6, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 9,366

[76] Inventor:

[52] US. Cl ..4/131 [51] Int. Cl. ..A47k 11/02 [58] Field of Search ...4/l18, 131, 221; 219/261, 492

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,093,592 4/1914 Rice ..219/261 1,272,483 7/1918 McGary et al ..4/8 1,371,184 3/1921 Oca-Balda ..219/492 1,468,179 9/1923 Sutton ....219/492 1,861,288 5/1932 Weill ....2l9/492 2,700,775 2/1955 Martin ..4/131 2,771,533 11/1956 Osberg et a1. ..219/19 2,838,015 6/1958 Gleasman ..110/9 2,903,709 9/ 1959 Blankenship et al. ..4/131 2,956,497 10/1960 Bernstein 99/421 3,020,559 2/1962 Blankenship et a1. .....4/13l 3,173,388 3/1965 Menrath et al. ..110/8 3,436,765 4/1969 Sundberg ..4/131 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 933,077 8/1963 Great Britain ..219/261 1,067,702 5/ 1967 Great Britain ..4/1 18 Primary Examinerl-louston S. Bell, Jr. Assistant ExaminerDonald B. Massenberg AttorneyYoung & Thompson ABSTRACT Device for electric incinerator dry closets having a collecting vessel placed in a pan featuring a downward, essentially conical taper and, at its lower end, an operable trap door. Said door also serves as a lid above an electric incinerator chamber and is divided into heat insulating, semi-circular halves which simultaneously swing upwards and outwards away from each other. The door halves are suspended from supporting members which are rigidly attached to a casing or stand. When the trap door is closed, a full length projection on the straight side of one of the door halves engages a corresponding recess in the corresponding side of the other door half. The door is kept from opening accidentally by mechanical means which are actuated when a certain weight is on the dry closet seat. The incinerator chamber burns the waste material deposited in it when the collecting vessel falls via the opening cover into said chamber.

7 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATEHTEDHARZYISYS 7 2,005

SHEET 10F 3 FIG.1

IN VEN TOR.

r977 VJ.

DEVICE FOR ELECTRIC INCINERATOR DRY CLOSETS The present invention relates to a device for electric incinerator dry closets or dry toilets having a casing with a lid, a downwardly tapering toilet bowl or pan having having a lower, center opening which is situated over an electrical incinerator chamber. The device also has a cover or hop door which seals the incinerator chamber upwardly and consists of two cover halves which are swingable outwardly and upwardly away from each other. It also has means for controlling the, covers. The device is so designed that when in use it holds a burnable and liquid impervious vessel in a fixed position, intended for collecting the waste. The device is also designed to heat insulate the toilet bowl from the incinerator chamber and, after use of the electric incinerator dry closet, to make possible transferring of the vessel and the waste to the incinerator chamber.

Since very high demands are being placed on the incinerators heat insulation upwards against the dry closet pan, a number of suggestions for improving this insulation have recently arisen. Generally, in addition to the above mentioned trap door, the method applied has been to further provide a lid over the incinerator chamber. Said lid must somehow be moved aside when waste is to be emptied into the incinerator chamber. Generally with the use of an electric incinerator dry closet, a liquid impervious vessel of burnable material is provided in the dry closet. Then, after the lavatory has been used, the trap door and the lid are opened causing said vessel to fall down into the incinerator without first landing on the lid of said incinerator chamber. This procedure necessitates a relatively intricate design to ensure that the openings of the trap door and the lid occur simultaneously and in a suitable way.

The present invention is characterized in that the incinerator chamber cover can be reached in its closed position from without via a bottom opening in the toilet bowl. This opening is designed to direct the vessel and allow its transfer to the collecting position. The invention is further characterized in that the top surface of the cover located somewhat under this opening is adapted to keep the liquid impervious vessel in the collecting position. The upper edge of the vessel lies immediately above and just inside the edge of the opening. A further characteristic is that the incinerator chamber cover is kept by blocking or locking means in its closed position, sealing off the incinerator chamber, as long as the load on a seat surrounding the upper opening of the toilet bowl exceeds a certain value.

According to the invention, the heat insulation is further improved if the one trap door half has, on its side facing the other trap door half, at least one projection extending over the entire length of said side. When the trap door is in the closed position, said projection on the said one side of the said one door half, engages a corresponding recess in the corresponding side of the other door half.

The simultaneous opening of the door halves exactly above the incinerator chamber ensures, per se, that the said vessel of burnable material e.'g., paper falls straight down into said incinerator chamber. To further ensure that this procedure occurs, and also that fluid which may land by mistake outside of the paper vessel will similarly fall down into the vessel, the door halves in a closed position, e.g., build an essentially central, at least slightly hollow excavation in its top side.

The door halves are e.g., swingably suspended from two supporting members provided on each side of the pan. The supporting members are firmly attached to a casing or stand of the dry closet. Thus, the door halves are suspended from at least one supporting member by a horizontal bar, each of which is rigidly attached to the corresponding door half. The bar is joumalled in a hole in the supporting member at the same height as the hole for the bar on the other door half. With such an arrangement, a very simple and suitable construction for operating the cover parts is obtained if the pivot bars joumalled in the one supporting member are extended at right angles and essentially perpendicularly rotated on the side of said supporting member facing away from the door halves, and with either end, one from each side, engaged with clearance in an opening in vertically displaceable actuating means effecting the opening and closing of the door halves. During its vertical movement, said actuating means are thus steerable by the upper part of the casing, and by a protruding projection from the adjacent supporting member, and thus the top end of the actuating means preferably extends somewhat outside the casing so that it can be manually operated.

By the above mentioned construction for the operating of the trap door halves, said door halves are closed against each other by their own weight without needing the help of any further means, such as e.g., springs. The actuating means are utilized for only the opening of the door halves which return by themselves because of the above mentioned connection with the door halves. To obtain a suitable relation between the movements of the door halves and those of the actuating means, according to the invention, the ends of the pivot bars engaging the actuating means, are e.g., alignable obliquely upwards when the door halves are closed against each other by their own weight, and thus the actuating means has an upper limit position.

Nowadays it is also essential to completely eliminate the risk that persons sitting on the toilet seat can be burned. According to an arrangement being part of the present invention, barrier means are provided to niake impossible an opening movement of the trap door as long as the load on a seat surrounding the opening of the pan exceeds a certain value.

An embodiment of the present invention will be more closely described below. Reference is made to the drawings in which FIG. 1 shows a perspective view with the trap door closed;

FIG.2 shows a similar perspective view but with the trap door opened;

FIG. 3 shows a perspective view from above of the electric incinerator dry closet, according to the present invention. I

In FIGS. 1 and 2, the number 2 indicates a part of the casing of the electric incinerator dry closet and 4 indicates a raised top lid of the casing. The different parts included in the device, according to the invention, are attached to the inside of the top lid 4. In the lower part of the casing 2, an incinerating chamber, (not shown) is provided. In the top lid 4 is an opening into which an essentially conical, downward tapering dry closet pan 6 is loosely inserted. As revealed in FIG. 3, the dry closet pan 6 rests on the upper side of the top lid 4 by means of an edge flange. A round trap door 8 is situated under the dry closet pan 6 that is, to the right in FIGS. 1 and 2 when the top lid 4 is raised, and at some distance from said top lid. Said trap door 8 has a diameter considerably greater than that of the opening 10 in the dry closet pan 6. A vessel (not shown) is inserted from the outside through the opening 10. This vessel of bumable material e.g., paper has, preferably, a plane round bottom having the same diameter as that of the opening 10 and, surrounding said bottom, a somewhat outwardly inclined, ductible side of such height that when the vessel rests on the top side of the trap door 8, the side barely touches the bottom of the pan 6, and forms a somewhat larger opening than the hole 10. In a way common for electric incinerator dry closets, said vessel is intended to be provided in the dry closet when the dry closet is being used. The pan 6 has, as shown in the drawings, a relatively small depth bu't is shaped in such a way so that its volume will still be relatively large. It contains the opening 10.

The trap door is divided into two equally large halves 12 and 14. Each door half is, as is best shown in FIG. 2, provided, with two laterally projecting flanges l6 and 18 which are attached in any suitable manner to the cover half. The flanges 18 extend at first essentially in the plane of the corresponding cover half, but are thence deflected perpendicularly in the manner as shown in the Figures. Two metal plates 20 and 22 extend out on both sides of the pan and are attached to the top lid 4 in the manner as indicated in FIGS. 1 and 2. The door halves l2 and 14 are swingably suspended from theplate 22 by the deflected ends of the flanges 18, for example, by means of pivot bars (not shown) introduced into holes in the plate 22. These pivots are provided at the same height and at a distance from each other in the plate 22. In a similar manner, the door halves 12 'and 14 are suspended from the other metal plate 20. In this case, however, corresponding pivot bars 24 and 26 are perpendicularly deflected on the other side of the plate 20 and in a plane parallel to the plate. A tube 30, with its upper push button like end 28 closed, extends through a hole in the top lid 4. The end 28 is level on its top side and sticks up somewhat over the plane of the top lid 4. An angle iron bar 32 is welded to the lower end of the tube 30. The long shank of said bar extends parallel with the plate 20. With some margin, said long shank further leads through a flat iron bar or the like 34, said flat bar projecting out from the plate 20. A box-shaped member 36 is attached to the side of the angle bar facing the plate 20, and between the flat bar 34 and the tube 30. In the sides of the member 36 which are essentially perpendicular to the plate 20, openings are made into which the perpendicularly deflected ends of the pivots 24 and 26 are introduced, with considerable margin, in the manner shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. As appears from the foregoing, the trap door halves 12 and 14 are so suspended that they are closed against each other by their own weight when they simultaneously, by means of the pivots 24 and 26, press the actuating means comprising 30, 32, 36, upwards to their highest positions. The door halves areopened when said actuating means are manually depressed by means of the push button-like end 28 on the top side of the top lid 4. In doing this, the actuating means force the ends of the pivots 24 and 26 downwards so that the door halves 12 and 14 are opened away from each other. Thus, the door halves 12 and 14 can be held open only as long as the actuating means'are held depressed. Said door halves are closed against each other by their own weight when this depression ceases. 1

As shown in the drawings, the door halves l2 and 14 are built up in a box shape witha relatively substantial thickness, and preferably enclose an insulating material. Further, there is a recess 38 provided in the side of the door half 12 which faces the door half 14. Said recess 38 extends essentially over the entire length of said side of the door half 12 and has the same form as a projection 40 which is provided on the corresponding side of the door half 14. When the door halves 12 and 14 are closed together, against each other, the projection 40 fits into the recess 38. The design put forward in the foregoing, concerning the cover halves l2 and 14, ensures absolutely reliable heat insulation between the incinerator chamber and the pan as has been shown in practice.

To prevent the trap door 8 from accidentally opening when a person is sitting on the dry closet, a barrier, generally indicated by the number 42, is provided to make impossible an opening movement of the trap door as long as the load on a seat surrounding the upper opening of the pan exceeds a certain value. The front part of the seat is intended to rest on a member 44 that is connected with a bar 46 extending through the top lid 4. The lower part of said bar 46 is fork-shaped. A compression spring (not shown) is provided between the member 44 and the top lid 4, and a weight of at least approximately 10 kg is necessary to compress said spring. Beside the bar 46 and parallel with it, another bar 48 is welded to the under side'of the top lid 4. This bar 48 also has a fork-shaped end. One shank of an angle member 50 is introduced into the forks of the bars 46 and 48 so that one end of said leg is pivoted on the fork of the bar 46 while the other end, or the elbow of the angle member 50, is pivoted on the fork of the bar 48. The other shank of the angle member 50 extends in the same direction as and away from the bar 48, and is similarly connected to a bar 54 by a fork 1 coupling 52. Said bar 54 extends essentially perpendicularly towards the said other shank. The end of the bar 54 is directed through a hole in a sectional member 56 in a manner as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. A bar 58 is attached e.g., by welding to the member 32 and extends in a manner as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. When the member 44, situated under the seat, does not have a weight on ,it, the described mechanism takes the position as indicated in FIG. 2 where the bar 54 is retracted so that it does not prevent the movement of the bar 58 which as attached to the actuating means. If the member 44 is sufficiently loaded e.g., by a person sitting on the seat the bar 46 is depressed and thus turns the angle member 50 anti-clockwise (in FIGS. 1

and 2) so that the members 50 shank connected with the bar 54, projects said bar 54 through the hole in the sectional member 56'to the position shown in FIG. 1. The free end of the bar 54 thereby forms a barrier against the movement of the bar 58 which is connected to the actuating means. In this way, the push button 28 cannot be depressed to open the trap door. To facilitate the return movement of the bars 46 and 54, a draw spring 60 can be provided between the underside of the top lid 4 and the members 50 shank which is connected with the bar 46. Also, a compression spring 62 can be provided around the bar 54 between a stop on said bar and one side of the sectional member 56.

A square bar 64, or the like, can be attached to the actuating means e.g., on the tube 30 in a manner shown in the Figures, to actuate the operating contact 68 of a switch 66 at the opening movement of the door halves 12 and 14, and thereby the movement of the actuating means. This procedure engages the incinerator chamber and its fan and other electrical components. The top lid 4 is e.g., even adaptable, when raised (not shown) to completely break the current supply to the electrical part of the dry closet.

What I claim is:

l. A device for electric incinerator dry closets that has a casing with a lid, a downwardly tapering toilet pan, having a lower, center opening situated over an electrical incinerator chamber at the top of a sealing cover, consisting of two halves which are pivotally swingable outwardly and upwardly away from each other, and means for controlling said cover halves, said cover having means which when in use keeps a burnable, liquid impervious vessel in a fixed position for collecting waste and heat insulates the pan from the incinerator chamber and, after use of the electric incinerator dry closet, makes possible the transfer of the vessel and the waste to the incinerator chamber; characterized in that the incinerator chamber communicates in its closed position from without with the bottom opening of the pan, which opening has means whereby said opening directs the vessel and allows transfer of said vessel to the collecting position, the top surface of the cover being situated somewhat under this opening and keeping the liquid impervious vessel in said collecting position, the upper edge of said vessel lying immediately above and just inside the edge of said opening, locking means keeping the incinerator chamber cover in its closed position, sealing off said incinerator chamber, as long as the load on a seat above said lid surrounding the upper opening of said pan exceeds a certain predetermined value.

2. Deviceaccording to claim 1, characterized in that one trap door half has, on its side facing the other trap door half, at least one projection extending over the entire length of said side, said projection engaging a corresponding recess in the corresponding side of the other door half when said door halves are in the closed position.

3. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the incinerator chamber covers top surface, in its closed position, forms an essentially central, at least slightly hollow excavation.

4. Device according to claim 1, in which the door halves are swingably suspended in two supporting members provided on each side of the pan, said supporting members being firmly attached to said lid of said casing of the dry closet, whereby the door halves are suspended in at least one supporting member by a pair of horizontal Rivot bars each of which is rigidly atached to a door alf, each said pivot bar being ournalled in a hole in a supporting member at the same height as the hole for the pivot bar on the other door half, characterized in that the pivot bars journalled in the one supporting member are extended, and, on the side of said supporting member facing away from the door halves, deflected essentially perpendicularly and with either end, one from each side, engaging with clearance a recess in vertically displaceable actuating means.

5. Device according to claim 4, characterized in that the actuating means are steerable in the upper part of the casing, and in a protruding projection from the adjacent supporting member.

Device according to claim 5, characterized in that the top end of the actuating means extends somewhat outside and above the lid of said casing.

7. Device according to claim 4, characterized in that the ends of the pivot bars engaging the actuating means are directed obliquely upwards when the door halves are closed against each other by their own weight, the actuating means thereby assuming an upper limit position. 

1. A device for electric incinerator dry closets that has a casing with a lid, a downwardly tapering toilet pan, having a lower, center opening situated over an electrical incinerator chamber at the top of a sealing cover, consisting of two halves which are pivotally swingable outwardly and upwardly away from each other, and means for controlling said cover halves, said cover having means which when in use keeps a burnable, liquid impervious vessel in a fixed position for collecting waste and heat insulates the pan from the incinerator chamber and, after use of the electric incinerator dry closet, makes possible the transfer of the vessel and the waste to the incinerator chamber; characterized in that the incinerator chamber communicates in its closed position from without with the bottom opening of the pan, which opening has means whereby said opening directs the vessel and allows transfer of said vessel to the collecting position, the top surface of the cover being situated somewhat under this opening and keeping the liquid impervious vessel in said collecting position, the upper edge of said vessel lying immediately above and just inside the edge of said opening, locking means keeping the incinerator chamber cover in its closed position, sealing off said incinerator chamber, as long as the load on a seat above said lid surrounding the upper opening of said pan exceeds a certain predetermined value.
 2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that one trap door half has, on its side facing the other trap door half, at least one projection extending over the entire length of said side, said projection engaging a corresponding recess in the corresponding side of the other door half when said door halves are in the closed position.
 3. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the incinerator chamber cover''s top surface, in its closed position, forms an essentially central, at least slightly hollow excavation.
 4. Device according to claim 1, in which the door halves are swingably suspended in two supporting members provided on each side of the pan, said supporting members being firmly attached to said lid of said casing of the dry closet, whereby the door halves are suspended in at least one supporting member by a pair of horizontal pivot bars each of which is rigidly attached to a door half, each said pivot bar being journalled in a hole in a supporting member at the same height as the hole for the pivot bar on the other door half, characterized in that the pivot bars journalled in the one supporting member are extended, and, on the side of said supporting member facing away from the door halves, deflected essentially perpendicularly and with either end, one from each side, engaging with clearance a recess in vertically displaceable actuating means.
 5. Device according to claim 4, characterized in that the actuating means are steerable in the upper part of the casing, and in a protruding projection from the adjacent supporting member.
 6. Device according to claim 5, characterized in that the top end of the actuating means extends somewhat outside and above the lid of said casing.
 7. Device according to claim 4, characterized in that the ends of the pivot bars engaging the actuating means are directed obliquely upwards when the door halves are closed against each other by their own weight, the actuating means thereby assuming an upper limit position. 